Rating: 
Summary: Must-see; must-hear; must-have
Review: Run, don't walk, to pick up this DVD set. In addition to a crisp rendition of the original classic movie (with choice of audio options including 2.0, 5.1, DTS and original), and a second disk of Otis Redding & Jimi Hendrix, the addition of never-before-released performances on the "Outtakes" disk 3 make this release even better than the original. Revel in the innocence of 1967.
Feel the shiver down your spine as you hear (every nuance of) Janis Joplin delivering "Ball & Chain" to the appreciative audience (including a stunned Mama Cass Elliot). "Outtakes" doesn't do disk 3 justice - these are mostly concert-quality renditions, some with remixed 5.1 audio: Simon & Garfunkel (Sounds of Silence); Jefferson Airplane (Don't you need somebody to love); Scott McKenzie (San Francisco); Buffalo Springfield (w/o Neil Young, For what it's worth); another Janis Joplin, to name but a few. This set was worth the wait.
Rating:
Summary: I was there, now you can be, too.
Review: Oh boy, Monterey Pop 1967. I was there and I loved every minute. 2 years before Woodstock, over 200,000 young people descended upon a sleepy California fishing village for a 3 day celebration of music, peace, flowers, and love that heralded the beginning of "The Summer of Love". If you're goin'... wear some flowers in your hair. When I found this film, I knew I had to have it. And, I have not been disappointed. It's great. D.A. Pennebraker captured the reality of The First Annual International Monterey Pop Music Festival. (Unfortunately, it was also the last annual.) This documentary is raw, gritty, and filled with sights and sounds you won't find in any Hollywood portrayal of the "hippie movement". Every time I watch it, it takes me back to that wonderfully magic moment in time. You will enjoy the live performances of Janis Joplin (the weekend she signed a recording contract), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (their USA debut), Canned Heat, The Mamas and The Papas, Hugh Masakela, Jefferson Airplane, County Joe and the Fish, Ravi Shankar, Otis Redding, The Who, and many many others. You will also get to see some the effect it can have upon a small town when it expands to 8 times its normal size for 3 days with not 1 arrest being made. This weekend might have set the tone for the Summer of Love, but the music defined a whole new generation, and this film captures both. Five Stars, for sure, I'd like to give it six. Stan
Rating:
Summary: Just buy it for Jimi and Otis!
Review: The wonders of modern technology! Take a concert from 1967 and turn it into something that looks like it was filmed yesterday. How they do that? The video and audio restoration here is just incredible. Anyone with a high quality tv will be amazed. The sound quality is outstanding. The first disc is the documentary and it's a great time capsule of 60's music. The second disc is just Hendrix and Otis Redding. This is worth the price of the dvd all by itself. Without question the greatest pair of performances by ever. And just a few years before their untimely deaths, which makes it even more special. Hendrix was and may forever be the best guitarist and stage performer combined of all time. Otis R was perhaps the best soul singer and performer of all time. This captures them at their prime. The third disc is out-takes, which has some good performances too. But make no mistake, this is Jimi and Otis show. Their likes may never be seen again. An essential dvd!
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate edition of the greatest concert film ever made
Review: Mere words cannot describe the transcendental viewing experience that is "Monterey Pop", but I'll do my best to try here. Imagine a film of many of the best rock and pop acts of the 1960s performing at or near their peak smack in the middle of 1967's fabled Summer Of Love. Now imagine this concert expertly and emotionally filmed by master documentarian DA Pennebaker, and beautifully remastered 35 years later with crystal-clear sound and video. Now imagine every available surviving outtake from the original '68 film--including the complete Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding performances (both briefly issued on VHS in the 80s), plus two more hours featuring many acts not featured in the original film--added to the set, most of which is as good or even better than what made the final cut. "Monterey Pop" should be required viewing--far more than "Woodstock", that's for sure--for anyone interested in what the 60s was really all about. It is more than just an incredible rock festival, the first and still the best of its kind. It is a historical document of the hippie era at its euphoric peak. DA Pennebaker truly earned his credentials here as his camera focuses with incredible grace and sensitivity on each face, be it from audience member or performer. There is one shot during Ravi Shankar's performance where his camera walks down a lengthy aisle and the quasi-religious looks and gypsy-like fashions on the dozens of people he meets along the way is simply breathtaking. That singular mood--which captures a long-lost communal paradise of gentle smiles and laughter, incredibly colorful clothing and painted faces, mind-blowing psychedelic light shows, gods-eye weaves, beads, flowers and of course Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Otis Redding, Country Joe & The Fish, Simon And Garfunkel and many more giving performances more akin to spiritual visions than entertainment--will hypnotize and delight the viewer from beginning to end, and even though there are four hours of entertainment here you will be left wanting more (and usually wishing for a time machine).
With the audience almost as dazzling a sight as the performers, and the light show competing with and complementing the music for one's attention, the film feels like one singular artistic statement which came together like magic, fuelled by the acid-soaked climate of the time. Much interesting historical info is given in the booklet and audio commentaries, although the
real highlight of this re-release are the two extra DVDs featuring all the available outtake footage. Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding, of course, gave two of the greatest performances of all time at Monterey; nothing need be said of Hendrix's now-iconic US breakthrough, which upped the ante on The Who's stunning set. Much more of The Who's set makes the outtakes disc as well, along with many artists unfortunately cut out of the original film such as The Byrds, Laura Nyro, The Electric Flag, The Blues Project and Buffalo Springfield. The Blues Project give a particularly fine, unexpected performance featuring an inspired flute solo. Other highlights include Big Brother doing "Combination Of The Two" (which crackles with excitement), Simon And Garfunkel dishing out a mesmerizing "Sound Of Silence", Country Joe & The Fish rocking on "Martha Lorraine" (with more classic audience shots), Jefferson Airplane storming their way through "Somebody To Love" (which should have made the official film over "High Flying Bird"), Laura Nyro's dramatic rendition of "Poverty Train", and Crosby and Stills together on stage for the first time while the Springfield do "For What It's Worth". Films like this need to be preserved and cherished as time capsules of a bygone era that becomes more and more distorted through hazy recollection and warped media images over the years (for starters, not a *single* person in "Monterey Pop" can be seen wearing a tie-dye shirt!). It is my favorite concert film and one of the most enjoyable and even spiritual films I have ever seen, which at times brings a tear to the eye. If you've already seen the original film, the DVD will be "like Easter and Christmas and New Years and your birthday all in one"; if you haven't, and particularly if you are of today's under-21 generation for who the 60s are a distant grandparents' memory, "Monterey Pop" may change your life.
Rating:
Summary: All you could ask for...
Review: Filmed at California's Monterey festival in mid 1967 at which most of the new San Francisco bands performed, "Monterey Pop" captured the feel of the artists and, equally importantly, the audience at an event that catapulted the West Coast onto the international stage. Problem was that for various reasons, including poor playing & camera-work, a large number of these bands never made it into the released version leaving much of the film dominated by the more established & "professional" UK & US groups such as the Who, Eric Burdon & the Animals, the Mamas & Papas and Jimi Hendrix. But... no matter, because the contributions from Jefferson Airplane (and their superb lightshow lifted straight from the San Francisco ballrooms), Country Joe & The Fish (whose rendition of "Section 43" is a near perfect insight into "hippiedom"), Big Brother & The Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin at her peak) and Ravi Shankar provide one of the few visual records of the San Francisco music scene at the time. So, if you're interested in finding out what was happening see the original film. But if, like me, you already have it, or if you're just more curious, then this expanded 3 disc DVD edition is just about all you could ask for, and probably all you're ever going to get. Sure, the film quality on several of the additional sequences is poor but hey, you get a further two hours of performances - including Al Kooper, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield (with David Crosby & without Neil Young), the Association, Laura Nyro and Electric Flag, none of who were included in the original film, and... additional numbers from artists who made it into the original, including Country Joe & the Fish, Jefferson Airplane, Simon & Garfunkle, Big Brother & the Holding Company, the Who and the Mamas & Papas. Plus... a further hour featuring the full sets from Jimi Hendrix (simply electric!) and Otis Redding. In amongst what totals over four hours of music, you get much good and some bad - this was 1967 and many of these groups were still finding their way - but as a comprehensive insight into both the festival and the mid 60's "underground" scene it's unbeatable. And... to top it all, the comprehensive booklet included in this boxed set includes several lengthy reviews of the event, and the background to it, that put it all into context. Wonderful stuff...
Rating:
Summary: BLOOMFIELD ON DVD!!!!!!
Review: It is an interesting fact that Michael Bloomfield was the best guitar player to perform at the Monterey Pop Festival. Sure, Jimi Hendrix performed with much talent, but he's a lousy song-writer, and William Hung is a better singer. As for Bloomfield, I put out the dough for this three DVD set because it contained one live cut of Bloomfield and Electric Flag doing "Wine." Buddy Miles is on the cans, and he's wearing a suit! And I got to tell ya, Nick Gravenites--that's exactly how we people of Chicago's Westside look. Really! As far as I have been able to confirm, this is the only video clip of Michael Bloomfield in existence. How'd that happen? G.G. Allin has tons of videos out in the marketplace. (Ha! Ha! I just thought that neither G.G. nor Bloomfield are in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, but Arrowsmith is. And Tiny Tim might be.) Anyway, the clip does capture an all-too-short solo that still gives the first-time listener something spectacular. If you don't like this clip of "Wine," then you don't like Bloomfield. But for those who saw the clip, who would declare that it was not at least very pleasant? There's a lot of other cool stuff on these three DVDs. For example, fans of Janis Joplin will see a beautiful young lady. However, be forewarned that Big Brother and the Holding Company is blatantly musically inept. That band is terrible. It's worse than G.G. Allin and the Texas Nazis. Fans of Tiny Tim will savor four cuts! Yeah! Four cuts of Tiny Tim playing the ukulele! Don't get me wrong, I mean I am glad that Tiny Tim has found a new career as vocalist for The Darkness. You got to see the clothes The Who is wearing! I mean, it's awful! So, yeah, this is good stuff. If only Hendrix and Bloomfield jammed together! Man!
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate edition of the greatest concert film ever made
Review: Mere words cannot describe the transcendental viewing experience that is "Monterey Pop", but I'll do my best to try here. Imagine a film of many of the best rock and pop acts of the 1960s performing at or near their peak smack in the middle of 1967's fabled Summer Of Love. Now imagine this concert expertly and emotionally filmed by master documentarian DA Pennebaker, and beautifully remastered 35 years later with crystal-clear sound and video. Now imagine every available surviving outtake from the original '68 film--including the complete Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding performances (both briefly issued on VHS in the 80s), plus two more hours featuring many acts not featured in the original film--added to the set, most of which is as good or even better than what made the final cut. "Monterey Pop" should be required viewing--far more than "Woodstock", that's for sure--for anyone interested in what the 60s was really all about. It is more than just an incredible rock festival, the first and still the best of its kind. It is a historical document of the hippie era at its euphoric peak. DA Pennebaker truly earned his credentials here as his camera focuses with incredible grace and sensitivity on each face, be it from audience member or performer. There is one shot during Ravi Shankar's performance where his camera walks down a lengthy aisle and the quasi-religious looks and gypsy-like fashions on the dozens of people he meets along the way is simply breathtaking. That singular mood--which captures a long-lost communal paradise of gentle smiles and laughter, incredibly colorful clothing and painted faces, mind-blowing psychedelic light shows, gods-eye weaves, beads, flowers and of course Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Otis Redding, Country Joe & The Fish, Simon And Garfunkel and many more giving performances more akin to spiritual visions than entertainment--will hypnotize and delight the viewer from beginning to end, and even though there are four hours of entertainment here you will be left wanting more (and usually wishing for a time machine).
With the audience almost as dazzling a sight as the performers, and the light show competing with and complementing the music for one's attention, the film feels like one singular artistic statement which came together like magic, fuelled by the acid-soaked climate of the time. Much interesting historical info is given in the booklet and audio commentaries, although the
real highlight of this re-release are the two extra DVDs featuring all the available outtake footage. Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding, of course, gave two of the greatest performances of all time at Monterey; nothing need be said of Hendrix's now-iconic US breakthrough, which upped the ante on The Who's stunning set. Much more of The Who's set makes the outtakes disc as well, along with many artists unfortunately cut out of the original film such as The Byrds, Laura Nyro, The Electric Flag, The Blues Project and Buffalo Springfield. The Blues Project give a particularly fine, unexpected performance featuring an inspired flute solo. Other highlights include Big Brother doing "Combination Of The Two" (which crackles with excitement), Simon And Garfunkel dishing out a mesmerizing "Sound Of Silence", Country Joe & The Fish rocking on "Martha Lorraine" (with more classic audience shots), Jefferson Airplane storming their way through "Somebody To Love" (which should have made the official film over "High Flying Bird"), Laura Nyro's dramatic rendition of "Poverty Train", and Crosby and Stills together on stage for the first time while the Springfield do "For What It's Worth". Films like this need to be preserved and cherished as time capsules of a bygone era that becomes more and more distorted through hazy recollection and warped media images over the years (for starters, not a *single* person in "Monterey Pop" can be seen wearing a tie-dye shirt!). It is my favorite concert film and one of the most enjoyable and even spiritual films I have ever seen, which at times brings a tear to the eye. If you've already seen the original film, the DVD will be "like Easter and Christmas and New Years and your birthday all in one"; if you haven't, and particularly if you are of today's under-21 generation for who the 60s are a distant grandparents' memory, "Monterey Pop" may change your life.
Rating:
Summary: More Pieces for the Puzzle
Review: The Complete Monterey Pop Festival DVD box set is incredible, essential, magnificent and historic. The audio and video quality is as good as can be expected, considering the technology available at the time. The two discs of material not previously available take giant steps to complete the puzzle of what exactly went down at the first rock festival back during the summer of love. I bought this mostly for the Jimi Hendrix / Otis Redding disc and for the most part am satisfied. But I am not without criticism. The disc opens with the Experience playing "Can You See Me" as an artist paints Jimi on a brick wall in a getto alley. It's an excellent video in its own right, but I think it would have worked better had it been sequenced in its original position in the performance. I also miss Jimi's talk to the crowd before the song starts where he announces they are about to play Can You See Me in F sharp. Other than the sequencing gripe, I don't have much to complain about. Charles Sharr Murray's commentary is excellent, as is Pete Townsend's interview. Having the extra Otis Redding songs as well as the out-takes disc is really golden. I only wish that even more were available. There were some spirited performances at this festival. Probably the weakest component of the whole box is the booklet. It's fine, but it's got tough competition, going up against history and all - it's just too incomplete to measure up. The disc binding plastic insrets are lousy too, requiring too much monkeying around to get the discs out without flexing them far too aggressively. The key to minimizing the abuse is this: push down the center button and lift the top of the disc, then rotate it to free up one of the bottom lock tabs, being careful not to scratch the disc in the process. Once the disc is out, get an emery board and soften up the edges of the binding tabs and blow off any dust from the filing. Then it will work much better with less stress on the DVDs.
Rating:
Summary: THAT'S ALL FOLKS!
Review: Given the large number of great bands and performers at the festival, many reviewers have speculated about why some footage was included and some bands entirely skipped over. I recently e-mailed a performer at the festival re whether additional footage was available. This was his reply: "This Monterey box includes ALL the outtakes they had." If you loved or even liked late 60's rock, buy this set. It represents part of your life.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Trip Into The 60's Ever!
Review: This movie defies the 60's with flowers, love, and music.
people who were there: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Jefferson Airplane
The Mamas and The Papas
The Who
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Canned Heat
Simon and Garfunel
The Association
Otis Redding
thats just a couple!!!
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